ONGC Videsh finds oil, gas in Colombia, Brazil

ONGC Videsh, the international upstream subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), said on October 16 that it has discovered oil in its onshore exploration block CPO-5 in Colombia’s Llanos basin, and major natural gas in the deep offshore exploration block BM-SEAL-4 in Brazil’s Sergipe Alagoas Basin. ONGC Videsh owns interests in 41 oil and gas assets in 20 countries and produced about 26.2 per cent of oil and 20.7 per cent of oil and natural gas of India’s domestic production in FY 2018. In terms of reserves and production, ONGC Videsh is the second-largest petroleum company of India, next only to its parent ONGC. The latest discovery by ONGC Videsh will cater to India’s burgeoning demand. As of April 2018, ONGC Videsh had reserves of 711.4 million tonnes of oil equivalent. 

The company said that the well Sol-1, in the block CPO-5 encountered the oil-bearing sands of 8 meters at a depth of over 2,850 meters. Oil discovery in Sol-1 confirms the extent of oil pays further south of the block. ONGC Videsh had previously discovered commercial oil in the same pay in wells Mariposa-1 and Indico-1 in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Both the wells are presently under production. ONGC Videsh, as the operator, holds 70 per cent participating interest (PI) in CPO-5 block. The balance 30 per cent PI is owned by Petrodorado South America SA (PDSA), Colombia. ONGC Videsh currently operates interests in seven oil and gas projects in Colombia, and is is the joint owner of the oil-producing company Mansarovar Energy Colombia Ltd (MECL) along with its partners Sinopec of China.

Petrobras as operator of the BM-SEAL-4 consortium with ONGC Videsh, completed drilling of the well Moita Bonita-2 in deep offshore Brazil located in the Moita Bonita Area (block BM-SEAL-4) at a water depth of over 2,620 meters and encountered gas-bearing sand of total thickness of 39 meters at a depth of over 5,220 meters and oil-bearing sands of total thickness of 24m at deeper depths. Drill test was performed at the site which showed good production from the reservoir. Petrobras controls a 75 per cent PI in the consortium while ONGC Videsh owns 25 per cent PI. The consortium will continue activities to evaluate the discovery to ascertain its commerciality. In Brazil, ONGC Videsh has a partnership in two exploration blocks, including a 27 per cent PI in the offshore BC-10 block.

Globally, ONGC Videsh has oil and gas production from 15 Assets, four Assets where hydrocarbons have been discovered are at various stages of development, 18 Assets are under various stages of exploration and four more projects are in pipeline.